This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop clone tool to add more smoke to the image. (Hat tip: Mike.)

Its so incredibly obvious, it reminds me of the faked CBS memos. Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. Theres really no question about it.

Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beiruts suburbs August 5, 2006. Many buildings were flattened during the attack. REUTERS/Adnan Hajj

When it comes to matters of forgery, I think Little Green Footballs has established his bona fides.

Even I can see the very suspicious "clonings" of picture elements here. And I'm an idiot.

20060805BeirutPhotoshop.jpg

Decide for yourself. LGF throws a little question mark into the headline, and I follow his example, but he then writes "There's really no question about it."

I don't know enough to say "no question," but it sure looks like a crudely-manipulated photoshop to me.

Seems to me someone was just writing a lot about the MSM setting itself for a major scandal by credulously taking every report or picture submitted by a foreign stringer with likely poltiical biases, unknown loyalties, and dubious ethics, and splashing them on the front pages as if they'd all been carefully scrutinized and vetted.

Photo taken by REUTERS/Adnan Hajj.

Of the Hajj's of Louisberg Square, Boston, I wonder?

Again, you tell me.

Reuters has some explaining to do. The whole MSM has some explaining to do. But they will do no explaining, and ask no questions, and embargo the story, because they cannot admit that they have cut foreign budgets to such a degree tthey now rely almost entirely on local stringers of questionable objectivity and integrity for the bulk of their foreign reportage.

They just can't even get into this issue. They'd more or less have to simply say "Almost all of our international coverage is highly suspect due to our unwillingness to send credentialed journalists into these areas."

PS: Unless there's some sort of spoofing going on, the image appears to be posted on Yahoo news, credited to Reuters.

Did someone at Yahoo doctor it? Someone at Reuters?

I doubt it. I think it was doctored much earlier in the process.

There is enough on the simple face of it here to compel Reuters to make the original negative public. If they don't, they're compounding their crime by covering it up.

PPS: Tried to find my old Drudge Siren gif, couldn't, decided to go with a flaming skull. Too much, I imagine. But the Drudge Siren is old.

PPPS: I don't want to oversell this, but this could be Rathergate II: The Revenge, that we've all been waiting for.

It's not just this one picture. It is the MSM's "outsourcing" of most foreign news coverage to low-paid, low-experience, low-credentials, foreign "local" stringers who almost certainly have a very strong personal interest in 1) juicing their stories and pictures to make sure they sell and 2) advancing a political goal of slandering Israel that most Muslims, sadly, seem to share.

It would be one thing if, given economic realities, Reuters et al. did this but made sure they applied some very serious vetting to this material back at the home office.

But they don't. Whatever pictures come across their desks -- the obviously propagandized pictures from Qana, this absurd doctoring of smoke plumes to make the wreckage in Beirut seem more extensive and dramatic and, most important of all, disproportionate -- they simply publish without even the most basic scrutiny.

If this shoddy, crude forgery got past their vaunted "multiple layers of painstaking editorial fact-checking," what in the world would not?

It's too soon for a victory lap. But I'm going to be taking it pretty soon, I think. I wrote a major scandal was on the way. We needed only unambiguous evidence of "journalistic" misconduct on the part of the stringers, and beyond-negligent behavior by the home office of a news organization in putting obvious, shoddy doctored photos out to the world.

We just got exactly that.

This isn't mere negligence. This is wilfull blindness approaching connivance with co-conspirators.

If this crap gets by the MSM, what credibility do they have left? If I want speculation, bias, and doctored photos passed off as genuine, why not just read blogs?

You arrogant, incompetent morons. You were warned you were about to step on your own dicks with this kind of shit. You didn't bother to listen.

We'll see how that all works out for you, huh?

Cowbell Update: Although I've made it a general rule that "cowbell" only applies to economic events, I'll make an exception, as this is big, and the most recent economic numbers were not.

Click on the flaming skull to hear the cowbell theme, courtesy, as always, of Blaster's Blog.

Because you asked for it.

If Two Makes a Trend, How About Three?: Another possibly cloned plume of smoke from Reuters.

This one isn't as obvious, and it's even possible it's not doctored. If it is p-shopped, a better job of it was done, as there are elements blurred out to avoid obvious similarities to the foregrond plume.

Doctored? Maybe, maybe not.

But I'd sure like a look at the original negative. Wouldn't you?

And given what Reuters just sent out the world, they have a duty to provide it.

"Multiple layers of painstaking editorial fact-checking."

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Via Via Left & Right, who deserves a follow-up click, as they don't have a sitemeter on their picture.

Purple Avenger reminds me of one of my favorite Bond quotes.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. -- Auric Goldfinger

The site EU Referendum demonstrates the extent to which the Qana deaths are being exploited heartlessly by Hezbollah propagandists and their willing enablers in the mass media. The cynical exploitation of the dead bodies of children over a period of hours shows beyond any doubt that Hezbollah has no respect for or compassion for the the mortal remains of these victims of violence.

Which fact adds weight to the hypothesis that Israels attack did not kill the children, but they were rather kept inside the building afterward, and it collapsed hours later due to either its weakened state or to vibrations from an attack half a kilometer away, or perhaps from the explosion of weapons kept in the building by Hezbollah.

The IDF is reporting that evidence suggests that it was not, in fact, responsible:

Addressing the possibility that the building may have collapsed because the IAF bombing triggered a delayed explosion of weapons stored inside, Eshel said: I dont want to get into conspiracy theories. We will work diligently and collect every detail, so as to understand what happened there. I hope that we will know in the end, but Im not sure. Its possible that we will never know what exactly happened there. The IDF screened a video yesterday showing rocket launches from Qana, and said it chose the objectives in the village by analyzing the locations from which Hezbollah had fired rockets on Israel. However, the house that was hit had no direct connection to the rocket-launching cells. Nonetheless, IAF officials said that immediately after firing rockets at Israel, some Hezbollah cells hide in civilian houses in built-up areas in southern Lebanon. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and other senior officers expressed regret yesterday over the deaths of the civilians. They said the IDF was not aware that the civilians were in the village and had expected them to leave Qana the week before, following Israeli warnings of an impending attack. Eisencott blamed Hezbollah for the deaths, saying the group uses the civilian population as a human shield.
​

Meanwhile, The Washington Times and Chicago Sun-Times editorialize that the blame for the civilian deaths lies with Hezbollah.

Ed Lasky 7 31 06

Update: it is obvious that the photogs at the Qana massacre site were in on the game. The Strata-Sphere reports a follow-up to the EU Referendum investigation:

This Reuters photo is actually of the same dead baby from the previous links. But now the poor child has been adorned with a nice clean pacifier to accent the propaganda value of this childs corpse. Where are the Geneva Convention thought police when a childs body is being used for propaganda by these terrorists? Where are the human rights organizations? Terrorists and photographers are gaining from the craven abuse of this childs body!

The evidence that the photographs at Qana were staged is so evident that the following photographers must be called to account for their conduct. Surely it is a crime to misuse their privileged media position to aid in propaganda. Adnan Hajj of Reuters; Nicolas Asfouri of AFP; Mohammed Zaatari of AP; Kevin Frayer of AP​

Kevin Frayer is the husband of CNNs Middle East bureau chief. I want to contact the agencies ro express revulsion for such evident professional misconduct.

Clarice Feldman 7 31 06

Update: The Confederate Yankee has more on the possibility of staging the event.

Further update: the same man featured in the Qana photos appears to have been posing the dead in 1996.

Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged
Yaakov Lappin

A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage.

The photograph showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. Reuters has since withdrawn the photograph from its website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors.

Reuters withdraws doctored image

In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience."

Ignored
Israeli war deaths go largely unnoticed / Yaakov Lappin
Hours after mother and two daughters are killed in Hizbullah rocket attack, media outlets around world fail to report deaths; meanwhile, British press continues anti-Israel tirade
Full Story

Reuters' head of PR Moira Whittle said in response: "Reuters has suspended a photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to a photograph showing smoke billowing from buildings following an air strike on Beirut. Reuters takes such matters extremely seriously as it is strictly against company editorial policy to alter pictures."

"As soon as the allegation came to light, the photograph, filed on Saturday 5 August, was removed from the file and a replacement, showing the same scene, was sent. The explanation for the removal was the improper use of photo-editing software," she added.

Earlier, Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog , which has exposed a previous attempt at fraud by a major American news corporation, wrote : "This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop clone tool to add more smoke to the image."

News version of photo (Photo: Reuters)

Johnson added: "Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. Theres really no question about it."

A series of close ups are then posted on the blog, showing that "its not only the plumes of smoke that were 'enhanced.' There are also cloned buildings." The close ups do appear to show exact replicas of buildings appearing next to one another in the photograph.

The Sports Shooter web forum , used by professional photographers, also examined the photo, with many users concluding that the image has been doctored.
Threat From Reuters
Reuters employee issues 'Zionist pig' death threat / Yaakov Lappin
Worker suspended after telling American blogger: 'I look forward to day when you pigs get your throats cut'
Full Story

'Looks so obviously doctored'

"I'll second the cloned smoke...but it looks so obvious that I don't know how the photographer could have gotten away with it," wrote one user.

After further research, Johnson posted a photograph he says is the original image taken before distortions were made, showing much lighter smoke rising.

Other blogs have also analyzed the photographs, and reached similar conclusions, such as Left & Right , which states: "The photo has been doctored, quite badly."

The author of the Ace of Spades blog wrote: "Even I can see the very suspicious "clonings" of picture elements here. And I'm an idiot."

The Hot Air blog also looked at the photo, describing the image as "the worst Photoshop I have ever seen."

Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana  which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged.

Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged
Yaakov Lappin

A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage.

The photograph showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. Reuters has since withdrawn the photograph from its website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors.

Reuters withdraws doctored image

In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvience."

Reuters' head of PR Moira Whittle said in response: "Reuters has suspended a photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to a photograph showing smoke billowing from buildings following an air strike on Beirut. Reuters takes such matters extremely seriously as it is strictly against company editorial policy to alter pictures."

"As soon as the allegation came to light, the photograph, filed on Saturday 5 August, was removed from the file and a replacement, showing the same scene, was sent. The explanation for the removal was the improper use of photo-editing software," she added.

Earlier, Charles Johnson, of the Little Green Footballs blog , which has exposed a previous attempt at fraud by a major American news corporation, wrote : "This Reuters photograph shows blatant evidence of manipulation. Notice the repeating patterns in the smoke; this is almost certainly caused by using the Photoshop clone tool to add more smoke to the image."

News version of photo (Photo: Reuters)

Johnson added: "Smoke simply does not contain repeating symmetrical patterns like this, and you can see the repetition in both plumes of smoke. Theres really no question about it."

Speaking to Ynetnews, Johnson said: "This has to cast doubt not only on the photographer who did the alterations, but on Reuters' entire review process. If they could let such an obvious fake get through to publication, how many more faked or 'enhanced' photos have not been caught?"

A series of close ups are then posted on the blog, showing that "its not only the plumes of smoke that were 'enhanced.' There are also cloned buildings." The close ups do appear to show exact replicas of buildings appearing next to one another in the photograph.

The Sports Shooter web forum , used by professional photographers, also examined the photo, with many users concluding that the image has been doctored.

'Looks so obviously doctored'

"I'll second the cloned smoke...but it looks so obvious that I don't know how the photographer could have gotten away with it," wrote one user.

After further research, Johnson posted a photograph he says is the original image taken before distortions were made, showing much lighter smoke rising.

Other blogs have also analyzed the photographs, and reached similar conclusions, such as Left & Right , which states: "The photo has been doctored, quite badly."

The author of the Ace of Spades blog wrote: "Even I can see the very suspicious "clonings" of picture elements here. And I'm an idiot."

The Hot Air blog also looked at the photo, describing the image as "the worst Photoshop I have ever seen."

Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana  which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged.

"A photographer who would blatantly falsify an entire 'news' image would certainly not be above posing and staging photographs of rescue workers," Johnson concluded.

I'm glad they admited it. It sounds like Reuters is acting like it's the 20th century still. There is probably so much institutional inertia at the company that even in this day and age no one thought a photographer would give them doctored photos. Hopefully this will wake them up.

I'm glad they admited it. It sounds like Reuters is acting like it's the 20th century still. There is probably so much institutional inertia at the company that even in this day and age no one thought a photographer would give them doctored photos. Hopefully this will wake them up.

Click to expand...

What about the 'employee making death threats'? Interesting organization...

What about the 'employee making death threats'? Interesting organization...

Click to expand...

Considering that this is an organization consisting of thousands of journalists and freelancers spread across the globe operating largely independent of central control, I'm not too surprised that one person in the organization is anti-Israeli. Besides, doctoring two photos to make a smoke plume appear slightly large hardly strikes me as an organization-wide conspiracy to destroy America.

Edit Add: These people are chosen based on photography skills, not politics. And as I've said before, Reuters was probably living in the 20th century. They thought they were too big for anyone to try to fool them with photoshop.

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